Which laptop please

ponymad_3

I have always til now just used my PC, but have decided to invest in a laptop as I won t have one with my new job. Currently I don t have BB via a wireless connection, my router is wired never had need to change! I am in process of sorting this so I can have a laptop as well
No idea what to look for . My needs are pretty basic... want to have internet connection, fairly portable as would like to be able to take away on holiday sometimes and back and forth to work. Not really sure how much I need to budget. What i def don t need is much any use for games... Would like to be able to use Iplayer .
Can someone give me ideas on
Make for reliability and durability
What spec I should need
and costs
and whether I should really go to somewhere like PC world, but i don t want to get bambuzelled by some techie 15 yr old !

Thanks

macman

Do not buy from PCW or any of it's devilish offshoots. Though my granny probably knows more 'techie' than the average PCW employee.
Any modern laptop will do all you ask with room to spare, so you first need to set your budget before you can get any specific advice.

ponymad_3

TBH I am happy with something cheap as long as the reliability is there. Having said that would want o last me for a fair time... Say 5 yrs as won t use massively but could need in my role for PPt pres etc . Will use excel for work and Office.. Does that help... so are you saying go to an independant or should I just be able to get the advice I need then buy on the internet. I like to get the best price for what I buy if possible and I m assuming after set up everything should be sorted?

baby_frogmella

Go for a Lenovo Thinkpad - they are business-class laptops built like tanks (eg spillproof keyboard) are reliable (come with a 3 year warranty as standard) and will last you many, many years. I recently bought the 12.5" Thinkpad X220, probably the best laptop i've ever bought. Very very light, IPS screen and battery life is amazing...12 hours on the 9 cell battery. They're not the cheapest but like with most things in life you get what you pay for
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=FD6DB49790C7411D933567FC361231FB&current-category-id=71869CB7AB18D048AB96F6A5EBD12D9E&action=init

WarioTBH

Its worth popping to places like PCW / Comet so you can see the laptop in the flesh and have a go at typing on the keyboard to see if its comfortable for you, sounds silly, but you want a laptop that is going to be comfortable and one that has a reasonable keyboard layout etc. Best place to actual buy a laptop is online using website such as Dabs.com or Ebuyer.com.

As for a brand, i would take a look at Lenovo, they are the 2nd largest computer maker and have great quality laptops for sale.

Anything with an i3 processor, 250gb+ hard drive, 4gb of RAM and Windows 7 will suit you well in my opinion.

Stay away from Acers if you want quality

luci

If you will be taking it out and about I would seriously think about a 10" netbook rather than a full size laptop. Humfing a laptop around a lot gets very old very quickly as they can be quite heavy. A netbook will slip into a decent sized handbag no problem.

I bought a Toshiba netbook and have been very happy with it even if it doesn't have the best reputation. I wanted one with long battery life and this one was up to 9 hours and has a full size keyboard.

I agree with going to PCW or similar to look at them in the flesh and try out the keyboard and mousepad. However no way would I buy one there. I bought mine online from Carphone Warehouse who were £70 cheaper than anywhere else at the time.

Mine came with 1GB of RAM so I upgraded it to 2GB which made it much faster.

macman

A netbook is fine if you want portability and no optical drive. For everything else a laptop is better.

ponymad_3

macman wrote: »

A netbook is fine if you want portability and no optical drive. For everything else a laptop is better.

Sorry to be completely thick... what is the optical drive for

gonzo127

optical drive, is a cd/dvd/blu ray drive

gonzo127

as to reliability, as ever with anything it is pot luck as to if something will be a lemon, and although Acer are not generally well thought of, my mum and dad have had one for about 5 years now with no problems what so ever, and so long as you buy from someone reputable (not pc world) your warrenty shoudl cover most things in the first year.

anyways brands i tent to look at would be Asus, Lenovo and probably toshiba, this being said if you see a good deal on other brands do not automatically discount them

ponymad_3

How much do you think I need to spend... I had nt thought about a netbook, suppose might be useful if I could play DVD in future though so I think the smaller laptop will suit best.